Initial Costs

Domain Name

Every website needs a domain name, as it is this that needs to be typed into the address bar to gain access to the site.

Domain names need to be unique as two companies cannot share one name. A .co.uk or .biz are the cheapest options costing around £4 a year, whilst the more popular .com domain costs as much as £10 a year or more.

Hosting

Every website needs to be hosted on a web server. Again there are free options available, via Google for example, but these are limited and not always reliable.

Hosting on a web server containing other sites usually costs around £20-£250 a month. To have your own server is much more expensive with costs averaging around £400 a month.

Usually, you can pay anything from £10 – £450 per month for a premium package. Other more expensive options are available for larger e-commerce sites that require more demanding packages.

Cost of a Small First Website

A first website is made up of between one and 5 pages and is great for start-ups or small businesses. When purchasing the first website you should consider the ease with which it could be upgraded or expanded in the future if the business were to grow, or if you were to add other services or products.

Business Website WordPress Advanced

A natural progression from a first website is a bespoke professional business website, which is usually between 5-20 pages, has more functionality and needs more plugins or specially developed software. These types of website are suitable for those wishing to redesign or refresh the first website or are ready to develop a dedicated online presence.

You should choose an option that allows you to upgrade and add to it in the future. The web’s digital language is now in its fifth version and is updated fairly regularly, so having the ability to quickly tweak your site and keep it accessible is important. It is also imperative to ensure that it is mobile responsive given that this is now where the majority of traffic originates from.

For a small business website, you should write down all of your requirements to ensure that your designer can deliver the site you want and need. Consider the following:

• How many pages or sections do you need?
• What functionality do you need – picture gallery? eCommerce?
• What is the scope for future development?
• What graphics or stock images do you need?
• Will it be mobile responsive?

Prices depend on the size and complexity of your site, as well as the number of revisions and amends that are required.
For this sort of website, I would also suggest making a budget for monthly marketing campaigns that keep traffic coming to your site.

Cost of a Large-Sized Website

Website costs increase considerably as you move up in scale. With multiple sections, 21 to 50 pages and lots of functionality, large websites are ideal for big companies or established online brands. A larger site offers potentially greater flexibility, especially for eCommerce business using software such as Shopify or Magento. Be aware though that it can take time and patience to build such a large site and costs will go up considerably.

If you are looking to develop a larger website, or redesign a smaller one, you will need a reliable and resilient content management system in place so that you or someone that you employ can access and make regular amends to the site. The development and build of such a template or database can be both time-consuming and expensive, but once in place, you will have a great launching pad to grow your online presence.

For larger websites, which are often eCommerce sites, it is imperative that it is mobile-responsive. In an ideal world, your designers will migrate your existing site into a new and mobile-responsive framework. However, if this is not possible, you can expect costs to mount up as a new build is required.